The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Lagos said on Saturday that the challenge faced by some voters to get accredited for voting was not peculiar to the state, the News Agency of Nigeria has reported.
Mr. Akin Orebiyii, the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, spoke against the backdrop of the challenges faced by some voters to get accredited with the use of card readers.
He said that following the challenge, the state received a directive from the commission headquarters in Abuja to resort to the use of electronic voter registers for accreditation in such instances.
“We have hitches in some points where the smart card readers malfunctioned.
“And we have received, about an hour ago, directive from our headquarters from Abuja to allow the use of electronic voter register for accreditation.
“We have announced that we will use the fall back alternative should the smart card reader failed wherever there is a challenge.
“The voter register contains the same information we have on the Permanent Voter cards, so once the details on PVCs conforms to the detail on the voter register, the voter will be accredited.
Orebiyii, however, said that voting had started in several places across the state because the accreditation started at the appropriate time and the machine worked perfectly.
He said that wherever there was a little delay, the commission had been able to deploy its back up men and materials to sort out situation.
“Everywhere now we have been able to provide back up to sort out issues wherever there are difficulties,” he said.
The REC commended the patience, calmness and orderly manner with which voters had been conducting themselves.
According to him, the country is on the pathway to meet up with standards of electoral systems in the developed world even with the few hitches recorded.
He said that voting would end whenever the last person duly accredited person casts his votes.
Voting was ongoing in many parts of the state, while accreditation was still ongoing in others at 4:30p.m.
In Kosofe Local Government Area, accreditation was still ongoing at Polling Unit 014 and Polling unit 050 in Isheri-Olowo-Ira (Magodo Phase 2).
Also, in Polling Unit 050A, accreditation was going on manually because the card readers did not work.
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Inec your not competent.